My Favorite Beauty Tips and Go To's

So we all have those favorite little secrets we use to keep ourselves pretty and fresh feeling and here are some of my favorites, from lots of places.

From Glamour Magazine and Glamour.com/beauty:

            For nails: Try wearing flesh/skin toned colored nail polish to make fingers look longer and thinner. Wearing a shade that’s close to your skin tone adds length to your fingers which also makes them look thinner, not to mention it’s a very simple chick look that’s perfect for both office and a night on the town, also try rubbing Vaseline into your nail beds to soften cuticles and give nails a healthy shine and glow.

            For Skin: To even out skin without scrubbing yourself to death with exfoliator try rubbing a cut lemon on rough areas, the acid will soften the rough spots and lighten dark areas (Lianne Farbes, TheMakeUpGirl) Also make sure you moisturize, everywhere! The best time to do this is right after you shower because the lotion or moisturizer holds in the moisture your skin has already absorbed from the water.

For some more Glamour tips check out this link: http://www.glamour.com/beauty/2008/11/13-diy-at-home-spa-tricks#slide=14

DIY Beauty Fun

While browsing my favorite craft site (craftgawker.com) I came across this amazing foot scrub recipe by Julie Ann Art (http://www.julieannart.com/2011/03/homemade-foot-scrub.html), that’s not only completely easy to make, but amazingly cheap too!

Here’s what you need:

 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon almond oil (can be substituted for olive oil)

(Note: I used olive oil when I made this and it worked great!)

Then just mix everything in a large bowl until consistency is even and scrub away, then rinse with warm water and don’t forget to slap on some lotion or moisturizer to keep those feet smooth and sexy after all that hard work!

Want an even easier all over scrub? Just mix raw sugar with water to make a thick paste, then scrub on damp skin and rinse off, it’s one of those hand me down tricks, like using lemons and sun to add natural highlights to hair. For that all you need to do is juice a couple of lemons add a ½ cup water spritz on hair with a mister then go for walk or sit in the yard and read a book (wearing proper sun protection of course especially if you plan on being outside for more than 10 minutes) anywhere between a half an hour to 1-2 hours should be plenty of time, then rinse hair with water and presto instant highlights! Plus since lemon juice and water isn’t nearly as bad for your hair as dye you can repeat as often as you like until you get as light as you want. Like I said though, make sure you wear sunscreen! (Note: this tends to work better in the summer though since the sun is out a bit more, but we won’t go into the science of seasons here.)

Another easy at home way to improve the look of skin is the old steam open, shock closed trick. Take a nice warm steamy shower which opens up pours (and sinuses!) so you can wash out dirt and irritants, then rinse in as cool of water as you can stand, the colder the better. This shocks pores closed to keep dirt and oil from getting back into them, and improves blood circulation at the skins surface giving skin a more youthful look. Pretty neat trick huh? Plus it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than those miracle creams, who thought a little blood flow could do all that?

And there you have it, those are some of my favorite beauty tips, and hey another bonus most of those won’t break your budget either, so we’re still on track with that save money resolution! So what are some of your guys favorite beauty go to’s?